AllatRa by Anastasia Novykh 2 www.allatra.org

AllatRa by Anastasia Novykh
which is considered one of the largest in the world; year 785 – early 11th century;
Cordoba, Spain);
2) a prayer mat (Turkish namazlik); art of the Turkic-speaking nations practising Islam.
Rigden: By the way, there are mainly all the same symbols and signs that belong to the
cultures and religions of many other nations: octagons, hexagons, rhombuses, squares,
diagonal crosses and so on… Generally speaking, a shell with a pearl in the ancient
times was a symbol of the Soul, of the creative divine feminine principle. It was an
attribute of many female deities and their names, a symbol of water sacred element. As I
have mentioned before, the latter meant a habitat that was different from the earthly one
and entirely different for the human understanding. However every living thing was
derived from it, was dependent on it, and needed it. The Bible mentions the words of
Jesus Christ, when he explains what the Kingdom of Heaven is like (Mathew, chapter
13, verses 45-46): “Again, the Kingdom of Heaven is like a merchant looking for fine
pearls. When he found one of great value, he went away and sold everything he had and
bought it.”
Nacre, which has rainbow effect, was considered the pearl’s “divine shell”. By the way,
in the East, the sacred spiritual meaning of the Soul in the form of a pearl was also often
described poetically through the image of a water drop on the lotus. Thing is that the
lotus leaves have specific whitish wax coating. Since olden days, the unusual effect of
the lotus has been known: when water (for example, rain water) gets on the lotus leaves,
it beads up into spherical drops. In the sun light, these droplets, shimmering with the
iridescent colour of nacre on the whitish coating, seem like precious pearls. Naturally,
this effect couldn’t go unnoticed by the Eastern poets, thanks to which their lyrical
verses assumed a metaphor with a deep sacred meaning:
From the eternal sky,
Raindrops suddenly
Fell on the lotus,
And light moisture on the leaves …
Became a pearl.
The French word of nacre “perle” is derived from the Latin “pirula” meaning a “speck”.
The latter, in its turn, is derived from the word “pirium” meaning a “sphere”. The Slavic
word “perlamutr” is borrowed from the German word “Perlemutter”, where “Perle”
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